tLATS OF TUB JARDINILLOS. 195 



at 26'8; the temperature exceeded 4'2 that which we 

 had found near the breakers of Diego Perez. At the dis- 

 tance of half a mile from the coast, the sea water was not 

 more than 2*5 ; we had no opportunity of sounding, but 

 the depth of the water had no doubt diminished. On the 

 14th March, we entered the Bio Guaurabo, one of the two 

 ports of Trinidad de Cuba, to put on shore the practice, or 

 pilot of Batabano, who had steered us across the flats 

 of the JardiniUos, though not without causing us to run 

 aground several times. We also hoped to find a packet- 

 boat (correo maritime) in this port, which would take us 

 to Carthagena. I landed towards the evening, and placed 

 Borda's azimuth compass and the artificial horizon, on the' 

 shore, for the purpose of observing the passage of some 

 stars by the meridian; but we had scarcely begun our 

 preparations, when a party of small traders of the class 

 called pulperos^ who had dined on board a foreign ship 

 recently arrived, invited us to accompany them to the town. 

 These good people requested us mount two by two on the 

 Bame horse ; and, as the heat was excessive, we accepted 

 their offer. The distance from the mouth of the Bio Guau- 

 rabo to Trinidad, is nearly four miles, in a north-west 

 direction. The road runs across a plain which seems as 

 if it had been levelled by a long sojourn of the waters. It 

 is covered with vegetation, to which the miraguama, a palm- 

 tree with silvered leaves (which we saw here for the first 

 time), gives a peculiar character.* This fertile soil, although 

 of tierra color ada, requires only to be tilled, and it would 

 yield fruitful harvests. A very picturesque view opens 

 westward on the Lorn as of San Juan, a chain of calcareous 

 mountains from 1800 to 2000 toises high, and very steep 

 t "\\urds the south. Their bare and barren summits form 

 sometimes round blocks ; and here and there rise up in points 



* Corypha miraguama. Probably the same species which struck 

 Messrs. John and William Fraser (father and son), in the vicinity of 

 Matanzas. Those two botanists, who introduced a great number of 

 valuable plants to the gardens of Europe, were shipwrecked on their 

 voyage to the Havannah from the United States, and saved themselves 

 with difficulty on the cayot at the entrance of the Old Channel, a few 

 before my departure for Carthagena. 



